Thursday, August 30, 2012

CPO Heritage - Day 2

This time we were lucky enough to have much better weather and they were able to PT outside.
Also joining us today was Combat Camera. Think military photographers. Which was really cool! In fact one of the gentlemen from Combat Camera actually did a story on the event that appeared in Flagship. I only wished that he'd mentioned the museum. *sigh*

I suffered from major camera envy that day!

So we set up the raffle table in the chief cutlass history area. We were lucky enough to have Vanguard donate a Chief's Cutlass to us and we were raffling it off for $5 a ticket.

Quite the deal when you consider that the cutlass normally goes for about $500 and that doesn't include the accoutrement that you need to be able to wear it while in uniform. After adding those in it costs over $600. Yikes!

They were even good enough to show you how it should be worn.

Of course I HAD to give the guy grief about practically stripping in front of me. But believe me, he gave as good as he got. So this was not a boring station to be at. I laughed a LOT! We were joking around most of the morning.

At the end of the day everyone gathered in the theater. There they announced the winners of the chief's mess. This was decided by the people who worked for the past two days. Observations and impressions that the selectees had made. The winners were from the USS Kearsarge! Not the guys from the Truman like I was pulling for, but way to go guys and gals!

FORCM Jeffrey Covington

So now they have a trophy (also from Vanguard) and bragging rights.

The speaker, FORCM Jeffrey Covington loved involving the selectees in his talk. Randomly picking people, much to many of the selectees amusement/fear. Depending on where you were sitting.

He even called out an old friend to chat with him, one of the chiefs who helps with this event. So no one is really spared from the glare of the spotlight. I, of course, got some shots of the group in the auditorium. But I didn't want to bore everyone with the see of yellow and blue.

Plus I didn't want to inundate this blog with photos as well.

In fact, on this day my camera actually died. I'd used it so much that the little batteries just gave up. Luckily it was at the end of the day or I would have been really peeved.

Announcing the winner of the drawing! The lady who announced the winner was so mad (she'd entered the drawing with the hopes of getting it for her hubby as a welcome home gift) she tore the ticket in two.

Mature. I can understand the frustration on her part, but I'm the one who had to do the count and reorganize those numbered tickets in the end. Now that's frustration.

And all proceeds from the raffle went to Hampton Roads Naval Museum so that they can continue with events such as this.